Brilliant New Strategy for Getting Kids to Stop Yelling

Today I discovered a brilliant new strategy for getting kids to stop yelling at eachother. At recess two of my kids were throwing mulch, so they had to sit down for the rest of recess (about 5 minutes left). Well they started screaming at eachother about whose fault it was and after listening to it for several rounds back and forth, I calmly said, "Hey guys? Why don't you yell louder, because I don't think you can hear eachother from 3 feet away?" They looked at me with heads turned sideways (like in this picture of my dog, Cody) and then began whispering to eachother, "you threw mulch first" "no I didn't, you did" "I didn't even touch it" "yes you did!"

Again after a minute or so, I said, "Guys, really, I'm serious. We're going to have to go inside in 3 minutes. So if you're going to yell, you need to do it now because you definitely can't do it inside the school. You have 3 minutes left. Go ahead and yell now." And again, they looked at me with sideways heads, very confused. Then they didn't say anything at all for the next 3 minutes!

Who knew? Clearly the way to get kids to be quiet is tell them to yell. Go figure.

John Boggs - defeated three times in a row

So tonight, John Boggs was defeated for the third straight time at Settlers. I must say he's slipping. He would probably give you some such nonsense as "I had a headache" but when you've lost as much as he has, excuses are no longer valid.

And I was looking through pictures on my computer and I just had to post this picture of one of my favorite dogs ever, Tucker. This is little Tucky Tuck when he was a puppy. Don't you just want to hug him? He's so adorable and soft like a cute little... uh... puppy! He's sitting in my mom's garden at our house in Earlysville.

Only 5 days until I get to see my sister in Georgia!!!!

Why can't every day be just this good?

So this morning I woke up with that song called "It's a Great Day to Be Alive" in my head. The chorus goes

"It's a great day to be alive

I know the sun's still shining when I close my eyes

There's some hard times in the neighborhood

But why can't every day be just this good?"

That's the way I felt after today because I spent the whole day snowboarding at Wintergreen! My stepdad works with Adaptive Ski up there and he got me a free lift ticket to ride. It was my first time up this season! There were perfect conditions - 55 degrees, sun shining, almost every slope open, soft snow! I won't be able to go again until February 17th! I can't wait!

Then this evening, I watched my friends Juan and Marco perform in the play Snow White. They were awesome dwarves and Juan even had a very fancy belt with his costume. Marco was wearing his lucky hat like usual, but sadly not during the play. I think he should put his lucky hat on when he comes out to bow at the end! Finally, Juan, Marco, their mom, and I went to a place on the downtown mall and ate gelato. AND I DIDN'T EVEN GET SICK! YAY!!!!!

See what I'm saying? Why can't every day be just this good?

Taekwondo

Yesterday, some students from International Black Belt Center came to my school for a taekwondo demonstration. It was so hard to just sit on the sidelines and watch them do it. I wanted to get out there with them so bad! When the instructor would call for attention to his students (which means you stand up straight with your hands by your side and your feet together), I of course wouldn't really move, but I could feel my muscles reacting to the direction and trying to go into "attention" stance.

The instructor talked to the kids about having "strong mind" which means being able to focus even in the face of teasing or other distractions. It was really good and the kids seemed to understand that having "strong mind" means not reacting back to other kids picking on you or annoying you. I think I'm going to keep going with that idea during the remainder of the year because I have a lot of kids that annoy the other kids.

And on Tuesday, the little guy in my class (we'll call him Hernando) tested for his yellow belt! He got his first color belt and a medal! He was so excited! He forgot to put his seatbelt on when we got in the car because as he said, "I was so impressed with my yellow belt, I forgot!"

Then last night I worked out at Gold's Gym for the first time. I was so excited and I called my sister to tell her. Her reaction? "YOU'VE HAD A MEMBERSHIP TO GOLD'S GYM FOR FIVE MONTHS AND THIS IS YOUR FIRST TIME GOING THERE? WHAT DO YOU HAVE A MEMBERSHIP FOR??????" I quietly answered, "the pool." I really want to be able to do pushups because I feel ridiculous at taekwondo being a black belt and not being able to do pushups. My arms are just so weak. So back to Gold's I will go tonight and see if I can increase bicep curls from 2 pounds to 3. Just kidding. It's not quite that bad.

Hidden Settings

Here are some hidden settings that people rarely know about, but explain the mysteries behind your PC's most frustrating actions!
Hahahahaha isn't that hilarious???? I couldn't stop laughing when I saw it. Even last night, I kept waking up at 1:45, then 3:15, then 5:30, thinking about it and laughing. Finally I understand why my computer acts like that!

On another note, I finished all of my report card comments (the hardest part)! And I even wrote them in Spanish for the first time! I'm so happy that I finally know enough Spanish to be able to do that! I only had to look up a couple things, like "on grade level". That's not really something that ever came up in my Spanish lessons at home. :)

Answered Prayers

I heard a cool story from a high school girl tonight. She's been in foster care for most of her life and she was just adopted recently. She said she's been worried lately because her behavior has been getting worse and she's worried that her new mom won't want her. She's been asking God for help to change her behavior but also to give her peace so she won't be so anxious about whether her new mom loves her. She said God's really been helping because she's just felt happier and calmer. Her counselor told her that he didn't even recognize her because she had changed the way she dressed and she had a huge smile on her face. She's been waiting for a family for a long time. But her hope is in God! He always comes through!

"Strength will rise as we wait upon the Lord
We will wait upon the Lord,
We will wait upon the Lord!"

Praise God for his strength while we wait for his perfect timing in answering our prayers! Praise Him for this loved child who is standing in his light and turning to him for help when she needs it most! And finally, praise Him for all the adoptive parents out there who are answering prayers made in tears from kids who need their love the most!

No School!

NO SCHOOL TODAY!!!!!

NO SCHOOL TODAY!!!!!!!

NO SCHOOL TODAY!!!!!!

PRAISE JESUS!!!!!!

NO SCHOOL TODAY!!!!!!

Since it's a snow day, here's a funny cartoon of a dead snowman's funeral. Sort of morbid... but it's funny nonetheless.

SNOW!!!

Yay it's snowing! Or at least...it was snowing. It's still doing something out there but I don't really know what. I hope we don't have school for the next 6 months!

Here's a picture of my church, Portico, this morning with snow coming down! Church was great, by the way! I started Gospel Class this morning which is a requirement if you want to be a member of the church. I met a cool person in the class who used to want to be an architect, just like me! We started laughing when we realized that we both used to cover every piece of paper in high school with floorplans and insist on writing in all capital letters, much to our teachers' dismay. (On a side note, writing in all capital letters is a great way to cover up when you don't know which words are supposed to have capital letters and which ones aren't.)

Oh and here's little Lauren Boggs. She was especially cute this morning in the front row, sleeping right through "Jesus Paid it All", "Mighty to Save", and "There's No One Like You". Well, report cards are due on Tuesday at midnight...and I haven't even started. So I'm off to school IN THE SNOW to get some report cards done!

Drive-Thru Moose

Hahahahaha I would have loved to be there that day! What a smart moose!

God Takes Over Computer

So a cool thing happened this morning (6:30 AM) when I was praying... I had just been reading a few chapters in John on www.biblegateway.com, because I had left my bible downstairs and I was too lazy and sleepy to walk ALL THE WAY down there to get it. After I finished reading, I started praying, like usual, just asking God to please oh please help those second graders learn to focus, make life start to calm down again for my family, and oh yeah am I ever going to get married. When I finished, I looked up and went to turn my computer off so that I could go to work.

That's when I noticed that the screen was different.

Even though I of course didn't touch the computer while I was praying, the screen had changed. It was still on biblegateway.com, but it was showing a different passage from the one I had left it on when I went to pray. I looked at the verse that it showed me:

John 14:1. "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me."

I stared at it, sort of in bewilderment for a moment (head cocked to the side like a puppy trying to understand goofy humans). When I got over my initial confusion at how the passage changed on its own, I realized that that's the first time I felt like Jesus was speaking to me THROUGH the bible. I've heard people say that, like "Yeah, God uses the bible to speak to us." But I had never really felt that before.

I heard him saying, "I know you've got a lot of questions right now and you don't understand and sometimes you wonder if I'm even listening... but trust me. Just trust me."

Praise God that even AMD Athlon Dual-Core Processors are under his control!

Hold Fast

"But you are to hold fast to the Lord your God, as you have until now." Joshua 23:8

In the middle of this crazy time, I was driving home in my car (I forget which car...one of the three I've had in the past week). Anyway, I was feeling overwhelmed and as I was listening to the radio (90.1 in case you care), I sort of wished that a song would come on that I'd never heard before that would make sense out of these situations. Right as I pulled into the driveway, a song by MercyMe came on and it started, "To everyone who's hurting" (to which I thought, um...me), "to those who've had enough" (yeah...that's me), "to all the undeserving" (yep, got that one too), "that should cover all of us"...

Well then I was immediately sad because as soon as the song was over I couldn't remember the words or the melody and anyone who knows me knows that I'm not allowed to spend money on anything that's not food or gas, and that includes 99 cent songs on iTunes. So yesterday I noticed that on my box of Poptarts it said "ONE FREE SONG DOWNLOAD" and I started jumping up and down saying, "No way! No way! Yippee skippee!" So I ran back upstairs to get the song FOR FREE! It's an awesome song - here are the words that really spoke to me:

"To everyone who's hurting
to those who've had enough
to all the undeserving
that should cover all of us,
please do not let go
I promise there is hope

Hold fast, help is on the way!
Hold fast, He's come to save the day!"

Fun Kids

This weekend I also got to visit some friends who are in 4th grade now. They were in my class 2 years ago. The one on the right lives in North Carolina now and she was up visiting for the weekend! It was really cool getting to see them again, eating lunch, and just hanging out!

Ryan's Birthday

Today's my brother's birthday!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, RYAN!!!!!!!!!

Disc Golf Lessons

Yesterday my friends, Ann, Alicia, Peter, and I went to play disc golf at Walnut Creek Park. It was perfect weather - 65 degrees and sunny. Ann and Alicia are my best friends from college. We were roommates at Bridgewater where we all went for undergrad. Alicia and Peter have played disc golf before, so they knew what they were doing. It was Ann's and my first time and we learned several hard lessons about disc golf. Here they are:

1. Throwing disc golf frisbees is not the same as throwing ultimate frisbee frisbees. Of course I didn't learn this lesson until after I had lost the frisbee twice in the woods and then thrown Alicia's favorite frisbee in the water. That's when I learned lesson number 2.

2. Disc golf frisbees sink. Fast. They hit the water and go down immediately. Fortunately Peter is part-prophet and as he foretold this would happen, he was down by the edge of the water waiting to see where the frisbee would go in so that he could go retrieve it. Unfortunately, I of course managed to sink it in the very deepest part.

3. Unless you really know what you are doing, disc golf frisbees don't go where they are aimed. For example, had I been aiming for the deepest part of the water, the frisbee would have sailed right on to the land, clearing the water easily.

4. Just because the air temperature in January is warm doesn't mean the water temperature is. Peter was quite cold having to retrieve the frisbee. He never did find it, but he found another one to replace it!

5. Don't stand in front of people when they are throwing a disc golf frisbee. For that matter, don't stand behind them or to the side either. I suggest finding safety in the very top of a tree or else curling up in the fetal position on the ground until everyone else's turn is over. I almost had my head taken off 3 times and I wasn't even standing in the path. I was traipsing through the middle of the woods searching for my long lost frisbee.

6. Disc golf frisbees are colorful for a reason. After trudging up and down bank after bank, looking behind trees and under thickets, I finally found my bright blue frisbee. Thank goodness frisbees aren't brown.

7. It's fun to have a friendly dog with you, especially one named Chaos. It's especially good when your friendly dog doesn't chew frisbees. And if you can teach them to dive under water to redeem sunken frisbees, then you are definitely ready to play this game.

The Adventures of Juan and Marco

So yesterday Juan and Marco and I struck terror into the hearts of innocent swimmers as we took over a local pool! We saw people who had come to the pool for a simple, relaxing soak in the hot tub, a nice quiet respite after a long day...and we laughed. We played a long game of animal tag where the poor bystanders had to listen to the barking sounds of sea lions, the splashing of kangaroos as they hopped through the water, and the continual sounds of "You're it! Now I'm a platypus!"








Marco wasn't sure about the water temperature at first. He was a little nervous of going in unprepared.



















We also gave the spectators a show of creative jumps. Unfortunately, the other people left surprisingly early. I have no idea why. I guess they didn't like our jumps.

Okay it's starting to get funny...

So I picked my car up from the body shop yesterday after it's been there for 3 weeks... and my car was just hit again tonight, 24 hours later. Back to the body shop we go. Does anyone else see what I'm talking about???? It's not me just being tired or frustrated or exaggerating otherwise simple situations...

Anytime it would like to stop would be great with me. Preferably soon. Like yesterday.

Stand

These lyrics are from a song called "Stand" by Rascal Flatts. Although he's not in the Christian music arena per se, there is truth in this song. My sister sent these lyrics to me yesterday when I was in tears in front of Hertz rental car because of a situation that just threw me over the edge. It was the end of what I could logically deal with. I feel like this tree in the picture... being stripped away one piece, one branch at a time. Yet this tree continues to stand. And, therefore, so will I.

"You feel like a candle in a hurricane
Just like a picture with a broken frame
Alone and helpless
Like you've lost your fight
But you'll be alright

Cause when push comes to shove
You taste what you're made of
You might bend, till you break
Cause its all you can take
On your knees you look up
Decide you've had enough
You get mad you get strong
Wipe your hands shake it off
Then you Stand, Then you stand"

You Gotta Love Dinosaurs!!

Although this has been a rough week, there have been some good parts too, like how my class has been studying dinosaurs and we made a full scale model of a Kentrosaurus. We hung it from the ceiling in the hall and here's a picture of it. You can see the little water fountain in the background for scale. The Kentrosaurus was 5 meters long and 2 meters high. It was really cool studying the dinosaurs because we got to talk about measuring in meters (usually we just talk about it in inches and feet). We chose the Kentrosaurus because it had so many cool spikes. It's related to the Stegosaurus but the Stegosaurus is almost twice as big, at 9 meters long. We didn't have enough cardboard or a big enough hallway for that! It took us two days to make the Kentrosaurus. We made clay dinosaurs and we also learned about how dinosaur names are created and what the names mean. I was surprised at how well the kids remembered the meanings of many dinos' names, like pachycephalosaurus ("thick-headed lizard"), psittacosaurus ("parrot lizard"), and velociraptor ("quick thief"). They remembered lots of facts about them too, like how baronyx was the first dinosaur who fished and archaeopteryx was the first flying reptile with feathers. "Dinosaurs" is not part of our curriculum - it was part of a special thing we do several times a year called "Choice Week" where the kids get to choose what they want to learn about that's not related to the state-determined curriculum. It's amazing how much kids learn and how passionate they are when you let them learn what they want to learn! I, of course, enjoyed every minute of it since I'm a dinosaur lover at heart!

Rough Day

Today was sort of a rough day...

My grandmother, who has Alzheimer's, is in the hospital because her stove caught on fire and she got third-degree burns on her hands from trying to put it out. She is very confused about where she is. Tomorrow she will be transferred to a nursing home.

My sister who is in graduate school in Georgia was signed up for a class that she didn't need to take by another professor. This professor told her that the class was full, but he PAID the teacher of the class to let my sister in (like you can do that????). I'll repeat that this is not a class that she has to or wants to take. She did not ask him to register her for the class. So anyway she goes to the class and the teacher tells her, "This class is full and I'm letting you in, but you'll basically have to learn it on your own. I can't help you." How do you like that for a teacher who cares about her students?

The toilet in my bathroom is leaking apparently (as I found out tonight) and has seaped through the floor of the second floor, dripping onto the living room carpet below. There is significant water damage on the ceiling of the living room, which is going to cost at least $500 to fix.

I'm sick.

And I got a new student today. Fortunately she's really nice and she can read, write, and do basic math, so that's good. Only two more days until a four-day weekend. Two days...

My Uniform Returns!

This picture is from my friend Ebbe. He climbed a mountain in Virginia called the Priest - it's the hardest climb in Virginia.

Guess what! I found my taekwondo uniform! This is actually a pretty noteworthy event because it's been missing since September. I've been just wearing my old uniform from my first degree black belt instead, but I finally got my second degree belt and uniform back!!!! I got to wear them for the first time tonight at taekwondo class and that made me so excited... until I had to spar the head instructor who is a 4th degree black belt. In defense of my poor display of sparring ability when fighting my instructor, he had already made me spar 6 other people in a row, BEFORE sparring him. So by the time he faced me and said "okay fighting stance" and it occurred to me what I was going to have to do, I was already about to drop on the floor in exhaustion. I got like 3 good shots on him, but that's nothing compared to the 864 shots he got on me!

oh yeah and I'm getting a new student tomorrow...so that will be exciting. I'm out!

Pet Stores Cure Boredom

Bored? Need something more exciting in your life? Do you fear the weekends because you have nothing to do? I have the answer that will change your life! PET STORES!

This weekend I was hanging out with my friends, Juan and Marco, and we were going to see Night at the Museum except the line at the theater stretched all the way down the sidewalk in front of the theater (maybe about 70 people in line). We took one look at that and said, "Um, no." So to conquer our boredom while waiting three hours for the next movie to start, we decided to visit nearby pet stores. We enjoyed playing with (Juan considered it taunting) the kitties, testing out the kitty play towers for structural safety (they were very safe - we highly recommend them to anyone adopting a kitty in the future), trying out new identities such as "cowboy", and catching a brief nap before the movie started. We saw lots of cool animals like chameleons, ferrets, snakes, lionfish, and sugar gliders. We also saw enormous hairy tarantulas which I wanted to step on, but my foot wouldn't fit inside the aquarium. Why would anyone buy one of those? Finally we left when an employee told us the store was closed (although he didn't tell us this until he saw me hand Marco a horse whip thing for his cowboy impression - interesting that he chose that moment to tell us we had to go home).

We ended a fun night seeing the 10:00 showing of Night at the Museum, which was hilarious! Try it this weekend, an evening of pet shops and a movie!

Standard of Beauty

Yesterday, God blessed us with the most gorgeous of days - plenty of sun and 73 degrees. My sister, Kathryn, and I took our good friend, Chaos the dog, hiking at Sugar Hollow. The weather was absolutely perfect and there was an abundance of water flowing from the recent rain. We had a great time, but more than that, it gave me an opportunity to reflect on something that Kathryn said while we were there. Upon seeing this beautiful waterfall in the picture, she paused, gazing in awe. "You know what's amazing?" she said to me. "This water, the waterfall, the beauty, it all just exists. People didn't make it. The water doesn't care if nobody comes to see it. It will continue flowing, just being beautiful, and it has nothing to do with people."

At that moment, I once again saw the reality of God's glory crying out to me. To think that before people determined a standard of beauty, this existed. It was so easy to see the creation of God, in this one waterfall, this one stream. The water didn't care that we were there. I could almost hear the water crying out to God, oblivious to the fact that two humans on a Saturday afternoon also considered it beautiful. The only thing that it seemed concerned with was letting its Creator know just how glorious He is. Beauty existed long before people decided what was beautiful.

It reminds me of when Jesus marched to the Mount of Olives, and the people were crying out to him, "Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!" The religious leaders told Jesus to make the people be quiet. And Jesus responded, "If they keep quiet, the very stones will cry out." (Luke 19:37-40)

Yesterday, standing before a waterfall whose very existence was to make more of God, the reality of that statement poured down on my heart.

Baby Boggs

On Wednesday God sent a new gift into my friends', John and Jenn's, lives. Lauren Winter Boggs was born at 8:20 AM with a full head of hair! Little Lauren looks just like John! She weighed 7 pounds 1.5 ounces. She is so tiny and adorable and she hardly ever cries! I went to visit her yesterday at the hospital! John and Jenn's two children, Angela and Rece, really like the new baby. Rece (2) loves to hold her - so much so, that she gets very protective of her and won't let her 4-year-old sister hold her! Both girls were very gentle with her! Here are some pictures of Lauren Winter with her new family.

God has truly blessed Lauren with a fantastic family!

Katie and Niklas' Birthday Visit!!!

We had the most specialest of guests today in our classroom! Katie and Niklas came to visit the second graders and teach them about Sweden! The kids asked so many questions and learned a lot about the country. They were going crazy with excitement all day waiting for Katie and Niklas to come! Earlier in the morning they wanted to make Swedish flags and give the flags to them. I explained to them that Katie and Niklas probably knew what the flag of Sweden looked like, but the kids insisted! Today was also Niklas' birthday and he told them how to say "Today is my birthday" in Swedish. Some of the kids wrote "Happy birthday Niklas" on their flags. While Katie and Niklas were talking to the kids, one little boy came up to me, pointed at Niklas, and then whispered, "Is that Niklas?" I of course whispered back, "Yes," and then the child got a huge smile on his face and said, "I like Niklas!"

Thank you, Katie and Niklas for coming to our class! The kids loved having you there! I wish you didn't have to leave tomorrow! We miss you!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, NIKLAS!!!!!!!!

Everyone needs a smartboard!

Can I just say that smartboards are one of the coolest things ever invented? Like how awesome is it to be able to write on a giant computer screen with markers, erase it, print out what you wrote, change what you wrote to fonted text, write with your finger, click with your finger, etc. I used it with my class today to learn more about adjectives and it was so fun! The kids loved it!

I also found out really sad news today. One of the kids in my class told me he is moving in a month. He is such an awesome kid, the sweetest and most gentle child you'll ever meet. According to him, everyone is his best friend and every day is his favorite day. This is a kid who never forgets to say thank you, who has a smile for everyone, and makes everyone laugh. He's the kid that would respond to "Today we're going to learn about dirt" with "REALLY???? I LOVE DIRT!!! DIRT IS LIKE MY FAVORITE THING EVER!!!!" And he can speak and read fluent English and Spanish AND can translate between the two at ease. (A very helpful thing when you are in a school with 20% of the kids speaking Spanish.) He is a kid who talks about God often and can't understand why everyone doesn't fall head over heels in love with Jesus. He is a model of loving people even when you're tired, grumpy, impatient, or annoyed. I am hoping that he will come to school tomorrow and say that he just misunderstood his mom and they're not really moving at all. I guess if he must move, though, it's time for him to bless another group of kids and their teacher with his love and attitude. He's certainly already blessed me.

(This is the stuffed moose he gave me for Christmas. He's sitting in a little rocking chair.)

The Return of School

AAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!! School starts in one hour. One measly hour. Only sixty minutes separate the last moments of freedom until the time the bell shakes us out of our trance. What will I do with these last minutes? Go to school of course.

I really am excited about school starting again for 2007. I am especially excited because I realized that in 8 school days, we have another 4-day weekend, and that is truly wonderful! And it's like 60 degrees outside which means we don't have to wear coats when we play on the field at recess (we don't have a playground right now...so sad). 60 minutes. See you on the other side...

Little Critters

Meet my two new little critters, Hammy (the gray one) and Mouse King (the brown one). Hammy is a teddy bear hamster and Mouse King is a short hair hamster. They were both named by my second grade class. Mouse King was named for the "champion" mouse fighter from the Nutcracker musical. I tried explaining to the kids that the Mouse King dies in the end, and is therefore quite the opposite of "champion", but they insisted that the oversized rodent remains victorious even in death. Now here's a little about the two so that you will feel like you know them (you can add them to your friends on your MySpace page if you want - it's okay with them).

Hammy sleeps all the time. I have rarely seen him awake. I am certain that all of his sleeping is to save energy for his Houdini acts, because he escapes from his iron-barred dungeon weekly.

Mouse King has anxiety issues. Although he has not been diagnosed with OCD, he fits many of the qualifying characteristics, such as gnawing frantically the bars of his cage for 17 minutes every evening and turning around 4 and a half times before he lays down to go to sleep. He also obsessively washes before and after eating. He is awake much more often than Hammy and is master of the infamous plastic hamster ball. I left the door of my classroom open one day when he was running around in his ball, and he was later found three halls over in another teacher's classroom.

So now you know my two new hamsters. Look them up in Facebook in the coming months - as soon as they have enrolled at RMU (Rodentary Medical University) in Cleveland.

New Year 07

Mmmmm I was just sitting down to a delightful lunch of mini cheeseburgers from Cheeseburger in Paradise and fried cheese from Chili's when I came across this most scrumptious picture of molten chocolate cake. Okay, so I didn't just "come across" it. I was actively searching for it on my computer's hard drive. Gaze upon its beauty for a moment. See the ice cream lava erupting out of the chocolatey volcanic center? Wow.

I just had the greatest New Year's Eve/Day ever! I spent it with my most bestest friend ever, Katie, and her husband Niklas, and my two new friends, Jenny and Amber! Niklas taught us a new game called Red and White Ghosts, which I of course wanted to play immediately, but nobody else thought Red Lobster was an appropriate hosting site for a game that involves hiding, running, tackling, and interrogating. I personally don't think that Red Lobster would have had a problem with it, but I suppose it could have disrupted the lobsters' tank meditation. It's been proven in studies that the disruption of a lobster's meditative state creates an increase in negative stress hormones which then leads to changes in the cooking temperature needed to achieve the perfect lobster tenderness for a meal. And I suppose that if a customer ordered a lobster meal that was less than perfect, they might not tip the waitress. So reluctantly, I complied with everyone's requests to NOT play Red and White Ghosts in the restaurant.

Jenny had to go home this morning...so sad... Good thing she's moving to Charlottesville soon! Right, Jenny?

Well there's my annual blog. Maybe this year I can try to actually post more blogs! HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY!!!!!!